Biafra war destroyed Nigerian civil service system – Obaseki

The Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, yesterday lamented that the outbreak of the civil war in 1967 disrupted the well-organized civil service system put in place by Britain.

The Governor charged civil servants in the state to key into the Integrated Financial Information System which will guarantee Electronic governance in all Ministries in the state.

While commending his predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole, whom he described as a courageous lion, for being the first governor to introduce the use of technology called the “oracle software in the payment system in the civil service”, Obaseki said his administration had provided one thousand computers and will provide internet facilities in all the offices so that every government dealings will be online.

Obaseki was speaking to Permanent Secretaries and Directors in the state civil service yesterday.

He said, “What we are doing is to automate the process, we inherited the British administration system which was used to govern the entire world.

“It was that system that helped us build the economic, social and political foundation of this country. Nigeria worked because the civil service worked.

“The civil service worked because there were processes and systems that made it work.

“What happened is that we had a civil war and most of those processes were disrupted. So when we say things are not working today, it is because the processes that we inherited in terms of how we manage the bureaucracy was disrupted. And it has been a challenge trying to bring back those processes.

“It is important to know that the money we are spending is tax payers’ money and we are only privileged to managed it, so we must be prudent about it.

“As a government, we want to make the job of the civil servants easy, that is why we want to run E-Government.

“We must look for money next week and rebuild Training Center, where there will be mandatory training and voluntary training for civil servants.

“If you close you don’t want to go home early you go there and they teach you. To make sure we run an E-Government, we just acquired a thousand computers, by the grace of God, we are going to complete bloc C this year, fence around the secretariat from the Ministry of Works Sapele Road to the High Court junction.

“We will make sure we have wireless internets in all our offices. By the grace of God, by the time our power project is completed we will have 24 hours electricity in our offices.

“I come from a civil service family and I worked as a clerical officer at the age of 16, so I have idea of how the civil service works and I know that no government, no institution can progress without the civil service.

“But on your part understand that you cannot continue with the attitude of the past. To whom so much is given so much is expected. We want to run our government like an electronically based government.

“Before the end of my tenure, we will no longer use hard files, so that all actions will be online.”